Valcor Crowngarde
Background Origins in Lordaeron Valcor was the first son of Arthur and Chelsey Crowngarde, two respected paladins that had served as part of a large paladin contingency protecting Lordaeron's church. His younger brother is Alcarious Crowngarde, who served Valcor's childhood was largely spent away from home in Lordaeron, training dutifully in the ways of a Paladin to follow his parent's footsteps. He was raised by his parents until he turned eleven, and was sent to Lordaeron to serve as a page, before eventually rising to become a Squire. During his time in Lordaeron he was entwined in a forbidden relationship with a priestess named Mariah, the two had gone undetected for years, even after Valcor was officially Knighted. Unsteadiness in the Church As a Knight of the Silver Hand, Valcor was uncomfortably confronted with an issue running through Lordaeron's church. Disputes were rising between it's members as to how mage's should be treated, Valcor stood at the forefront of a small cadre of followers that believed that Mage's should simply be left to their own devices. This was an unpopular stance, as the two main factions either advocated outright segregation and supervision while the other advocated integrating Mages with the church to combine their powers. Both sides saw Valcor's faction as cowards. Valcor Crowngarde.jpg|Valcor during his service as a Knight of the Silver Hand. Tensions rose to the point that outright conflict was feared, and Valcor encouraged Mariah to leave for Stormwind and serve in it's church instead, a move he would later be thankful for. Tensions soon died down in the church thanks to the intervention of Uther the Lightbringer, who ironically made a decree largely in support of Valcor's faction, saying that the Mage's should be left alone. The Scourge Invasion When the Legion invaded Lordaeron, Valcor was given leave to go to the Crowngarde Homestead to collect his family, but upon arrival he discovered it already under siege by a small contingency of undead. With the help of his father and mother, he killed the encroaching scourge and entered the Homestead to help his little brother escape. Alcarious, who was 17, had been forced to stay back by his parents, but even as they gathered their things to leave another party of undead made their approach. Arthur and Chelsey both demanded Valcor lead Alcarious away from the Homestead and head to the Tirisfal Cathedral, which was becoming known as the Scarlet Cathedral upon it's conversion to the headquarters for the fanatical order. The Scarlet Crusade Valcor was accepted into the Crusade along with his brother, though he was not looked upon fondly. Many of the fanatical Crusade paladins remembered his stance on mages during the Church's disputes, but it was not so stigmatizing that they would refuse a loyal Paladin. He was given his own brother as squire, and he was dispatched as the head of large patrol squads throughout Tirisfal. Soon, Alcarious was knighted, and Valcor refused a second squire. Instead, both Valcor and Alcarious were assigned to the retinue of Knight-Lieutenant Gerold Gant. During this service, however, Gant ordered the two as well as their fellow Paladins to destroy a band of exiled Elves fleeing the destruction of Quel'thalas. Disgusted by the order, Valcor persuaded Alcarious to stay his hand and desert with him, the two left the Crusade at that very moment to travel south for Stormwind. While it would have made more sense for the pair to seek refuge with Dalaran or Kul Tiras, neither of which had yet suffered the fate of Lordaeron, Valcor secretly wished to be reunited with his old love, Mariah. The Alliance Military With a fair share of adventures and peril, the two Paladins made it to Stormwind accompanied by their friends Lathoril and Farengard. Unbenownst to his brother and friends, he reunited with Mariah, and the two happily continued their secret affair. It was a relationship of love, but her status as priestess made it taboo among the church. Valcor signed up with the Alliance Military alongside his brother Alcarious, and for a few years he lived a life of relative peace within the Stormwind Church. If the Knight was to look back, those would be his brightest days. The Northrend War The Fjord-Grizzly Hills Campaign Valcor was sad to be seperated from both his lover and his brother, he was dispatched to Howling Fjord. He had entered the Northrend War under the rank of Knight-Lieutenant, but he was quickly raised to the rank of Knight-Captain for his actions in defending the Westfall Brigade. He commanded a platoon of soldiers mostly independently, simply commanded to support Alliance forces within the Fjord and the Grizzly Hills. He ran a short campaign against the trolls within Grizzly Hills, but it ended fairly inconclusively as he didn't have the reinforcements necessary to make the difference. Zul'Drak Expedition and Death His forces were taking casualties daily within the Hills from guerilla tactics from the Frost Trolls, the lack of reinforcements were whittling down his platoon and he wasn't able to get support from Valgarde. This spurred Valcor to make a risky decision, a push into Zul'drak to try and meet with the Argent Crusade and hopefully join their campaign. However, en route, a scourge ambush caught his platoon by surprise. Their current intel had dictated the scourge had no presence at the southern entrance to Zul'drak, so the platoon used this as an opportunity for some much needed rest. Valcor went down fighting as valiantly as he could, but him and his forces both were slaughtered by the sheer number of undead and a majority of them were raised by a powerful necromancer, who's name Valcor never learned. With his status as a powerful Paladin and notable officer within the Alliance, Scourgelord Tyrannus dictated that Valcor would be made a Death Knight to serve the Scourge. Taking Control of Scourgeholme Valcor was a powerful example of a Death Knight, his affinity with the light had translated well into his affinity with unholy, and soon he became a machine of war on the front lines of the undead. However, when Scourgeholme's leadership was destroyed by Highlord Tirion Fordring in the seizure of the Valley of Echoes, Valcor was redirected to take over. It was here that, to the Scourgelord's minor surprise, that he encountered his brother. Now a Knight-Captain of the Argent Crusade, his little brother was heading the forces of the Argent Vanguard against him. Their forces collided with all the force they could muster, Valcor's old persona was buried deep, but itched into his controlled mind just enough to give him a thought he normally would not have. He desired to kill his little brother and raise him as a death knight to serve at his side, just like their days in the Scarlet Crusade. He fought with all the will he could muster, striving heavily to slay Alcarious, but the two were evenly matched on the field. It was to his immense anger that he saw his own forces falling to the force of Paladins, and quickly realized he would be forced to flee or be killed. Freed of the Lich King He had been deemed to help guard the Icecrown Citadel, but vestiges of willpower in Valcor's mind enforced that to do so would be certain destruction to the armies of the Crusade, and instead he fled Northrend for his old home in Lordaeron. He repurposed the Crowngarde Homestead as his base of operations, raising his own small army of undead. In his mind, he would replace the Lich King and bring the Scourge bearing down onto all of Azeroth. Cataclysm A New Blade Valcor, with the aid of a Lich, would work to forge a new runeblade. This blade was imbued with plague, shadow, and blood magics to serve as an evil creation capable of killing all life. While the result was not quite what Valcor wanted, it would serve it's purpose, and the Scourgelord spent a long time secretly killing and raising aspiring heroes of Azeroth to join his forces. Mists of Pandaria Rise and Fall in Deatholme Early in the Pandaria Conflict, when the forces of Azeroth were distracted with the Pandaren continent, he chose that time to strike. He swarmed Deatholme in secret, turning the scourge there to his will and enforcing it's garrison with his own army. They rained death upon the Ghostlands, pushing the Blood Elves back and blighting their villages. Had he been able to continue at this rate, he would have his own swarm of undead rivalling the size of Arthas' when he himself sacked Silvermoon. However, they were given pause by Silvermoon's Blood Knights, who rode into the Ghostlands acting as guerilla combatants, destroying plague-spreaders and assassinating necromancers. It wasn't until the Argent Crusaders arrived that they moved openly against him, and he was delighted to discover that it was his brother leading their force. When their two armies met, the result was remarkably similar to the last time, except now Valcor discovered with glee that he was stronger than Alcarious. He gravely wounded the paladin and, just before he was able to deliver the final blow, he was stopped by the Crusaders that had rushed in to save him. He was once more forced to retreat, his plans stopped, but the Scourgelord now knew that while his power waxed, his enemies waned. Modern Valcor's whereabouts are unknown, forces under Alcarious' directive have already checked and cleared the Crowngarde Homestead, which was found empty. It can only be assumed that he is attempting to build his base of power and marshal a new force of undead.